The kids leaned forward, rapt, absorbing every word.
"You make it look so easy," Sabrina murmured when Bree stepped back to let the class work on their own pieces.
"It's not," Bree said honestly."Not at all.But it's worth the struggle.Creating something from nothing, watching kids realize they can do it too...there's nothing else like it."She nudged Sabrina's shoulder."You're good at this, by the way.They like you."
As if on cue, a boy near the back waved his paintbrush in the air like a flag of surrender."Sabrina!Sabrina, do you think this looks more like a wave or a dinosaur?"
She walked over, studying the blue-green arc on his canvas with serious consideration.The shape was...ambiguous, to put it kindly.It could have been anything from an ocean swell to a prehistoric creature to a very enthusiastic piece of broccoli.
"I think," she said thoughtfully, "it looks like a wave that might secretly be a dinosaur.Which is honestly very powerful imagery.Like, what if dinosaurs learned to surf?That's a whole story right there."
The boy's face split into a grin."Yeah!Surfing dinosaurs!"He attacked the canvas with renewed enthusiasm, already adding what might have been a tiny dinosaur riding the crest of the wave.
Bree appeared at her elbow again, voice low."Told you."
Somewhere between refilling water jars for the third time and helping Maya rescue a painting she'd dramatically declared "completely ruined beyond all hope," Sabrina realized something startling.
She hadn't thought about fire once in the last twenty minutes.
She hadn't thought about Gavin, or insurance paperwork, or the ashes of Norman House, or the list of suspects that kept growing without resolution.She hadn't replayed the nightmare or calculated how many days it had been since the flames or wondered if she'd ever feel normal again.
She'd just been...here.Present.Engaged.Useful.
It felt like stepping into sunlight after weeks of gray.
By the time parents started appearing in the doorway to collect their young artists, the studio looked like a small, colorful explosion had occurred.There was paint on the tables, the drop cloths, the floor, three kids' forearms, and somehow, inexplicably, the side of Sabrina's shirt despite her best efforts to stay clean.
"That was absolute chaos," she said, laughing as she helped Bree stack wet canvases on the drying rack.
"Good chaos," Bree corrected, grinning."Controlled chaos.My absolute favorite kind."
A knock sounded on the open doorway."I was told that proper food was needed to offset the dangerous glue fumes."
Sabrina turned.
Lila stood in the doorway like a vision of domestic competence, a white bakery box balanced on one hip and a thermos carrier dangling from her other hand.Her blond hair was pulled into a low ponytail, and she wore a flour-dusted apron over jeans and a T-shirt that read FEED PEOPLE, LOVE PEOPLE in cheerful block letters.
Sabrina's chest tightened in a different way than it had all week.Not with fear or grief or the dull ache of loss.With something warmer.Something that felt dangerously close to gratitude.
"You didn't have to do that," she started.
"Please," Lila said, stepping fully into the room and setting the carrier on the nearest clean surface."You think I was going to hear you were helping with a class and not show up with carbohydrates?What kind of friend would that make me?"
Bree beamed like Christmas had arrived early."My angels have descended from the heavens."
She took the bakery box while Lila unpacked the thermos carrier, revealing several tall containers of what smelled like tea.When Lila flipped the lid on the box, the scent of sugar and butter drifted up, warm and impossibly comforting.
"Blueberry muffins, lemon poppy seed, and the chocolate chip ones that should probably be illegal in most jurisdictions," Lila announced."Tea in the thermoses, and there's local honey in the little container if anyone wants it."
"You're trying to make sure I never leave this town," Sabrina said, only half joking.
"That's exactly what I'm trying to do," Lila said without apology."Is it working?Sit down.Eat something.You look like you've been wrestling octopi in paint form."
Sabrina glanced down at her shirt, at the streak of blue and the spattering of green that had somehow appeared without her noticing.She laughed, the sound surprising her."That's...not inaccurate."
Bree handed her a muffin and a paper cup of tea, then grabbed her own and settled onto one of the stools near the back of the room.Sabrina sank onto the seat beside her, suddenly aware of how tired her legs were from standing and moving for the past two hours.Lila poured her own tea and leaned against the counter, completing their small circle.
"So how'd it go?"Lila asked, looking between them.
